Thursday, 12 January 2012

LIFE IS ALL ABOUT BALANCE

I am sure you have heard there is a time for everything and everything has a season.  There is a time to be born and there is a time to die.  In between there is a balance of life and how we live it.  Everything is about balance.  I have heard people tell me that they don't have time to eat or sleep, watch TV, read a newspaper or workout. I have always had time for those things and yet I probably produce more and network more than most people I know other than my husband who has managed well to keep his life in balance apart from the fact he is a workaholic.  He still has time to do all the things we just discussed.  If he didn't balance his life he wouldn't have been able to have achieved so much because variety also has a lot to do with well-being as well as having the basic necessities of life in order.

People make choices in life every minute of the day.  Some people set their minds on sorting their sock drawer or washing their hair and because they have set their minds to it, they are unable to prioritise if something more meaningful, important or time sensitive comes up.  They are comfortable with their planning and can't move out of their groove.  That is how they see their balance on life.  They are not spontaneous but each person has to find his or her own balance to make his or her life liveable.

Balance is even on a more minute scale such as how, when and what we eat.  This goes for how we cook as well.  Now, not everyone cooks but if they do, they should know how to balance cooking times and seasonings to make the dish edible.  Again, it is all about the balance.  Especially, we expect professionals to know how to cook food properly. For example, I went a place called Tutto Pronto yesterday and ordered an egg white omelette with spinach, mushroom and mozzarella cheese.  That sounds simple enough but it obviously wasn't for the cook (I won't dare give the person the distinction of the word "chef").  Instead of a fluffy white omelette that had been well beaten with a little water or milk added, it was a flat piece of rubber, dark brown on the underside and swimming in oil.  Yuck! It was inedible.  It was poorly seasoned.  It had far too much mozzarella cheese and ended up being a cholesterol bomb.  It was off balance. 

It wasn't much better today when I ate at the Royal York.  You would think that the salad part of the meal was the easiest but alas it sucked.  It was called Niagara Pear and Endive salad with walnuts and blue cheese dressing.  It was luck I ordered the dressing on the side because it was sour.  The salad itself wasn't much to look at and the walnuts were some other unrecognizable nut and not walnuts and they were burnt beyond recognition... definitely, not balanced.

Although Weight Watchers have gone to a point system several years ago and say you can eat what you want within the point system, it also outlines on the daily tracking booklet some Good Health Guidelines.  They suggest you have 6 liquids, 2 healthy oils and a multivitamin daily.  Then they separate Power Foods and suggest you eat 5 to 9 fruits and veggies daily, 2-3 non-fat and low-fat dairy products, and suggest you eat whole grains and lean proteins.  They also ask you to remember to watch your intake of sodium, added sugar and alcohol.  I think this makes the programme very balanced.

Of course, at the meetings there are those that just don't have time to eat or prepare food and even to do daily tracking.  Maybe it should be suggested that they review their balance in life.  After all, they have chosen to join Weight Watchers and that is all part of getting their lives back in balance.

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